Indonesia is
forecast to be one of the fastest-growing outbound tourism
markets by 2020, according to Auckland Airport analysis, and
visiting tourism and trade experts from Indonesia believe
New Zealand needs to get ready for these
visitors.

Trevor Lee of TravConsult, specialists in
international customer service and tourism development, told
TRENZ delegates at the Auckland Airport International
Speaker Series that Indonesia’s outbound traveller is
sophisticated and experienced, and increasing in number by a
rapidly growing wealthy segment.

“The wealthy
population in Indonesia grew by 20 per cent last year and
these consumers are already travelling overseas. And very
importantly, the majority speak English well. The middle
class in Indonesia is also increasing in population, and
with increasing incomes, comes spending more on comfort,
lifestyle and quality of living,” he says.

“A
large number of Indonesians travel domestically – 115
million people, 48 per cent of Indonesia’s total
population. Within five years, many more of these will be
travelling overseas as outbound interest is growing rapidly.
So how will New Zealand welcome and look after them and what
will they want to do and see in New Zealand? My advice would
be for New Zealand to get much savvier about emerging
markets in ASEAN such as Indonesia and to better understand
what makes them tick and their many cultural differences. A
one-size-fits-all approach won’t work.”

Also
speaking at TRENZ as part of the Auckland Airport’s
speaker series is David Taylor, New Zealand’s ambassador
to Indonesia and to ASEAN, who echoed Mr Lee’s comments
about the growing potential value of
Indonesia.

“Building closer ties and
relationships with Indonesia is vital for New Zealand to
attract these burgeoning travellers. The recent memorandum
of understanding signed between Auckland Airport and Garuda
Indonesia to commit to re-opening air-links between
Indonesia and New Zealand, and the commencement of seasonal
Bali services by Air New Zealand are steps towards closer
airline connectivity with that region. A direct service
between Indonesia and New Zealand would be a game-changer
for the relationship, offering real benefits to both
countries through greater business, tourism and education
travel,” says Mr Taylor.

According to Auckland
Airport’s Ambition 2020 initiative, announced last week,
Indonesia and other ASEAN markets such as Malaysia, Thailand
and Singapore are vitally important as they are growing
quickly and could easily develop into $100 million plus
visitor spend markets.

“Asia will likely provide
the largest growth in traveller arrivals with that region
increasing by about 460,000 visitors to a potential 900,000
arrivals into New Zealand by 2020. Emerging markets within
Asia are particularly interesting with the likes of
Indonesia having the potential to at least triple in
arrivals to New Zealand by 2020,” says Glenn Wedlock,
Auckland Airport General Manager Aeronautical
Commercial.

The airport believes by 2020 Asia will
also provide the largest growth potential in the amount
travellers spend when they are here, and could contribute
$2.9 billion of the projected $8.5 billion in inbound
tourism value by 2020.

“Auckland Airport has a
number of initiatives to better understand the Indonesian
traveller, what motivates them and what sorts of things they
are looking for in a holiday destination. Some of the
things we are doing include; developing increased
air-services such as the Garuda Airlines MOU and Air New
Zealand Bali services, bringing Indonesia experts to New
Zealand for TRENZ and developing an customised Indonesian
version of our website,” adds Mr
Wedlock.

Auckland Airport is this week also hosting
a celebrity ambassador from Indonesia, television
personality Farah Quinn, on a tour of Auckland, Northland
and Queenstown. As part of a wider premium programme to
promote luxury New Zealand, Farah will use her huge
popularity and influence in their home market to promote her
tour of New Zealand to more than one million fans on
Facebook and 237,000 followers on Twitter.

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